Bulletin Reports: Photo Exchange

Bulletin Reports

Photo Exchange

NIJ Helps Police to Exchange Driver’s License Photos, an In Short from the National Institute of Justice, describes the pilot project to transmit driver’s license photographs across state lines and deliver the photos to an officer’s computer within seconds of a request. Law enforcement agents often need to confirm the identity of someone not carrying a driver’s license or other form of identification. Adding the capability to view a photo increases an officer’s ability to make a positive identification, helps keep officers safe, and sometimes eliminates the need to detain an individual simply for identification purposes. NIJ partnered with law enforcement agencies in North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, and Virginia in 2008 to begin this endeavor, which is the first significant advance in the exchange of driver’s license information since 1969 when states began making such information accessible to police officers. Readers can obtain additional information by accessing the report (NCJ 225801) at the National Criminal Justice Reference Service’s website, http://www.ncjrs.gov.